


The Trials and Tribulations of First-Time Parents

by FireflySong



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Breastfeeding, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Teething, and no this isnt just me grumbling about my step father, and the fact that he still doesnt know how to change a diaper after literally hundreds of babes, cause lets be real here, chashley baby, chris taking a large part in his kids life and helping to raise her, i don't know what you're talking about, there is no way that chris isnt a super hands on dad who adores both his wife and daughter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27855534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflySong/pseuds/FireflySong
Summary: It's not easy being first time parents. It's certainly not easy when your kid is in that mid-point between toddler and baby and their temperament can change on a dime. Especially when you've both agreed to name the kid in question after your best friend.But at the end of the day, they wouldn't change a single thing about any of this.
Relationships: Ashley Brown/Chris Hartley
Kudos: 8





	The Trials and Tribulations of First-Time Parents

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wacem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wacem/gifts).



> So, who wants a baby fic? Cleary Wacem cause that's what they requested when I was doing my kiss prompts and they asked for an 'exhausted parent kiss'. So you can go and blame them for the absolute sap-fest that this turned into. And while I don't have any kids of my own, I've been helping to raise babies since I was fourteen years old so I like to think that I know what they are like if nothing else. That being said, writing a realistic one is something else entirely and I can only hope that I somehow managed...

“Joshlynn! No no _nononononono!_ ”

With reflexes that Chris wished he had possessed as a kid, he literally lunged from where he had been digging into a nearby cupboard, reaching out to grab at his daughter before she rolled off of the couch he had laid her down on not even a minute ago. And barely a second later, he could already hear the frantic scrambling of Ashley from their bedroom as she responded to his cry of horror.

“Chris? Is she okay?! What happened?!”

Chris let out a relieved sigh as he let his forehead fall onto the hardwood floor with a soft thunk. “It’s fine Ash. Kid just tried to figure out how gravity works way before she should.”

“Gravity? What? I don’t—” she paused speaking for only a moment, most likely to take in the sight that was Chris stretched awkwardly and uncomfortably from the middle of the living room to the couch, and what had once been neatly stacked diapers in the cupboard now scattered haphazardly beside him. His arms were outstretched almost as far as he could reach, and even then they had been just barely long enough that his hands were able to serve as a barricade against the top of the cushions. Their daughter in question, completely unaware of the tumble she had been about to take, was now babbling and giggling without a care in the world, her small and drool covered fingers grabbing at Chris’s own eagerly. “Oh my god, Chris.” Ashley groaned. “You know that we can’t leave her unsupervised on the couch anymore! We haven’t been able to in _months!_ ”

From his place on the floor, Chris turned his head to look in the direction of their bedroom. “Unsupervised?” he sputtered, “she wasn’t unsupervised! I literally turned around for a second to grab the diapers and wipes.” During this, it occurred to Chris that Joshlynn had figured out how to angle her head in such a way that she was able to stick his thumb into her mouth and gnaw contently on the digit in question. “Can you _please_ just grab her, I can’t really move right now.”

He wasn’t lying. His frantic flail in trying (and succeeding) to save their daughter meant that he was completely unable to move from his current position without removing his hands from the edge of the couch cushions. And while Chris was supremely uncomfortable from his spot on the floor, it was still an exceptionally better alternative then having their seven-month old daughter continuing with the momentum of her roll and joining him there with a crash.

Chris heard, rather than witnessed, Ashley walk over to the couch and pick up their daughter. He couldn’t help the sigh of relief when the only sound that Joshlynn made was nothing more than a little discontented whine when she had been forced to let go of his fingers, but didn’t make too much of a fuss otherwise. She had been oddly cranky the last few days and the last couple of hours of happiness had been a godsend.

He let his arms drop from their stiff outstretched reach to the floor with a dull thump, and rolled himself onto his back with a tired groan. And looked up to see Ashley with a vaguely amused grin on her face and their daughter balanced on her hip. Unsurprisingly, Joshlynn had grabbed as much of Ashley’s loose blouse as her small hands could hold, and had shoved most of it in her mouth. Both of them were looking down at him with the same, virtually identical pair of wide green eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Like to see _you_ move that quickly. Think I pulled something making that fantastic save you totally missed by the way.” Chris got back up onto his feet and placed his hands onto his lower back to give a minor stretch, wincing when his back gave a sharp crack as it popped. “Yup, definitely pulled something.”

“Nice save though, Dad. She’ll be happy to know one day that she’s got you looking out for her.” He couldn’t help the way he puffed up a little at that in pride, and definitely couldn’t stop the smile when Ashley reached up to pull Chris down and place a chaste peck on his cheek in appreciation. Though her next words were quick to deflate him of that pride. “Even if I don’t know who’s the bigger baby somedays: you or the actual baby,” she teased. Sensing that Joshlynn was starting to slip a little, she readjusted so their daughter sat a little higher on her hip. 

“Gonna have to go with one that’s currently eating your shirt and drooling everywhere, personally.”

Ashley tapped a her chin with a finger from her free hand as she pretended to consider his point. “Hmmm… I don’t know. Still not seeing a whole lot of difference there.”

Chris ignored her teasing jabs. Years of friendship followed by dating and then— shockingly enough for both of them—marriage, had made it exceptionally easy. This recent stint into parenthood of theirs hadn’t made it any harder. So instead, he went to take Joshlynn from Ashley, intent on finishing his mission of changing his daughter’s diaper. A small, fond smile on his face that only grew larger when she had reached out for him eagerly. Ash let her go to him with no fight, and seemed unconcerned with the large drool stain on her shirt that fell against her chest the moment Joshlynn had removed it from her mouth. Not a surprise that one, Chris didn’t think that either of them owned any clothes that hadn’t been drooled, puked, pooped, or peed on at this point. 

“Honestly though, what were you even thinking putting her on the couch in the first place?”

Chris made sure that Joshlynn was sitting properly balanced in the crook of his arm before responding—the last thing he needed was to drop her now after somehow managing to avoid that almost tumble from the couch. “I don’t think I was?” The unimpressed look Ash gave him had him groaning even as he let Joshlynn grab at his free hand and shove his thumb back into her mouth. “I don’t know what to tell you, Ash. I put her down to change her diaper and I didn’t realize that I had put her down on the couch instead of laying her down on the floor like I intended. I barely caught her rolling over out of the corner of my eye and _motherFUCK!_ ”

He wasn’t sure who was more shocked at the curse: him or Ash. Hell, even Joshlynn seemed a little surprised at the outburst, if the little shriek she had made when he yanked his thumb out of her mouth was any indication.

“Chris? What—”

Chris didn’t let her finish. “She bit me!” There was pause where the two of them looked at each other with eyes wide and mouths open in shock, but it lasted barely more then a second. In another moment, Ashley was standing shoulder to shoulder next to him and angling her fingers to try and open their daughter’s mouth. Who, unsurprisingly, was not too excited at the prospect of having her mouth forced open if her fussing and the grimace on her face was any indication.

“Come on, sweetheart, just let Mommy and Daddy take a quick little looksee and—” Ashley interrupted herself with a surprised little laugh and Chris was quick to join in. Because in the sea of pink gums that was their baby’s open mouth, was a single little tooth starting to poke out of the top of her mouth, not unlike the white fin of a tiny, little upside-down shark.

“She’s teething,” Ash managed to get out in awe, before returning to her exuberant little laughs. “She’s teething, Chris!”

Anything else she might have said was lost, as that was when Chris leaned down to softly kiss her, muffling both of their awed laughter between their lips. It was over as quickly as it started though, the two of them resting their foreheads together and wide, exuberant grins on their faces, but neither were looking at each other, having eyes only for the little girl that they had encased in the middle of them. “Yeah, I can see that Ash. Explains why our baby girl has been so cranky recently.”

He could feel Ash nodding against him. “And why she’s been putting everything in her mouth for the last week or so.”

“Definitely all the drool.” Chris gave a good-natured poke at the still wet drool stain on Ashley’s shirt, which she batted away with a relieved laugh even as she kept a finger running along Joshlynn’s undoubtedly swollen gums. And if their daughter had been unthrilled at the prospect of having her mouth forced open, she was very clearly _not happy_ with having fingers poking around her mouth that she hadn’t put there herself. “…What are you doing?”

“Trying to see if any other teeth are coming through. And—huh.” She paused for a second and then burst out laughing, moving to press her head to Chris’s shoulder as her own shook with laughter. “Well, she’s got definitely got another tooth coming in.”

Now a little confused—but certainly not concerned—Chris let Ash remove her finger before replacing it with his own, even as Joshlynn fussed even more angrily in his arms at the introduction of an entirely new and different finger. Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait much longer before he found the exact same thing Ashley had and removed his hand to wipe it on his shirt. While the tooth was not nearly as far along, the sharp little bit he did feel had him laughing in disbelief.

“Are you sure that she isn’t really Josh’s kid instead?” He only laughed harder when Ashley swatted at his arm in retaliation. “I’m being serious, Ash! What are the chances that the first teeth our kid gets is their eye teeth? We’re gonna have a chubby cheeked and roly-poly vampire on our hands! Josh is going to be over the _moon_ when he finds out.”

Ash groaned dramatically, but he could feel the curve of her smile against his shoulder. “You do know that this means he is definitely going to be trying to convince us all to dress up as vampires for Halloween now?”

“ _Oh yeah._ Totally.”

In his arms, Joshlynn shifted as she began to cry and fuss, pushing against Chris with as much force as her little arms could manage. It seemed that she was completely done with not only having fingers shoved in her mouth against her will, but being ignored by her parents as well.

Ashley turned her head to face Joshlynn, and placed a kiss on her daughters forehead. “I know sweetheart, Mommy’s tired too. We should get you down for that nap, huh?” With that, Ash backed away and knelt down to grab at the diapers that had scattered when Chris had preformed his frantic dive.

“Ash, no, I got it.” Shifting Joshlynn so he could hold her under his arm in a football carry, he grabbed gently at Ashley’s arm to lift her back up. “Seriously, I got this. You go get everything ready, I’ll be right there once I finally finish changing her.”

With the scare and then rush of realizing that their daughter was finally getting her first teeth, it seemed that all of the exhaustion that Ashley had been hiding away the last couple of days had started to show itself, if her tired smile was any indication. “You sure about that? You promise not to leave her on the couch again?”

“It was a single lapse in judgement, Ash! But if it make you feel better, I swear that I won’t put her down until I have the diapers and wipes in front of me.”

“Oddly enough, it does.” With that, Chris watched her return to their bedroom and set about trying to change Joshlynn’s diaper. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the fact that she was getting pretty tired by now and cranky because of the whole new teeth thing, but he was having more difficulties then usual in trying to change her. For one thing, she wouldn’t stop fussing, leaving Chris on edge for when she was going to no doubt start shrieking and screaming if she didn’t get fed soon. For another, she just _wouldn’t stop moving_. It was a near constant struggle with her trying to roll over and escape while he tried to keep her in place. Which also made trying to properly fasten the diaper closed far more challenging as well.

Eventually, he did manage to get a clean diaper on her and was able to get her to lay still long enough again for him to button up her new, clean onesie, the old one having been nearly saturated in drool. He placed both the old, soiled diaper and the drenched clothing off to the side, nearby the still scattered and clean diapers that he was going to have to pick up later. Normally, Chris definitely would have made sure to toss the dirty diaper in the garbage right away and throw the dirty onesie in the laundry basket, but the way that Joshlynn had begun pawing and mouthing at his chest when he picked her up was giving him the feeling that he didn’t have a whole lot of time for that right now.

“Sorry kid, but I’m kinda sorta missing the plumbing for that. You’re gonna need your Mom for that one.” Unfortunately for him, Joshlynn didn’t take too kindly to hearing that, her soft cries becoming more frantic as she only pawed harder at him. He quickened his pace to the bedroom.

Thankfully, Ashley was already waiting for them. She was sitting in the middle of the bed, blouse undone and open, and looked up at the two of them when he entered the bedroom. In an instant, she had her arms out. “Give her here.”

Chris certainly didn’t need any more convincing. The two of them winced though when the moment he tried to remove Joshlynn from the front of his chest and hand her off, she started screaming in earnest, her little hands only grabbing and holding on harder to the front of Chris’s shirt. From there it was almost a battle in trying to unclaw her fingers from it’s exceptionally tight grip on his shirt while Ashley tried to maneuver their baby into her arms. Eventually though, the two of them managed and with a little more maneuvering, Joshlynn finally found Ashley’s uncovered breast and latched on immediately, her eyes closing as she drank deeply.

Both Chris and Ashley sighed in relief at the quiet that fell over the bedroom, broken only by the sounds of Joshlynn’s suckling. Being as gentle and careful as he could, Chris took his usual place behind Ash and sat against the headboard of the bed, opening his arms while she leaned back against his chest so he could wrap them lightly around her waist. Finally, once everyone had settled comfortably, he hooked his head over her shoulder and Ashley tilted her head a bit to rest her cheek against him. He closed his eyes and gave a deep, contented sigh.

Just like always—sitting like this with his arms wrapped around Ashley’s waist and her tucked firmly into his chest while she held their daughter safely in her arms—it felt like the piece of a puzzle he had always been missing had slotted correctly into place. He felt whole and complete, and he knew intrinsically that Ashley felt it too.

The two of them sat there on the bed in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the peace and quiet that rarely came with the three of them together, and he treasured it all the more for it. The moment was so calm and tranquil in fact, that Chris didn’t realize that he had begun to doze until Ashley had gently nudged his head with her own.

“She’s looking for you.”

Opening his eyes, he was greeted with the sight of one of Joshlynn’s hand grasping at the empty air, and her face scrunching up the longer she didn’t find what she was looking for even as she continued drinking. Without a word, Chris removed one of his arms from around Ashley’s waist and held out his pinky to place it in his daughter’s hand. It was instantaneous how quickly she settled back down, her tiny fist gripping firmly onto Chris’s pinky finger as though it was a lifeline. 

Somedays, Chris wondered if it wasn’t his finger that was the lifeline, but _her_.

“I was getting so worried.” Chris didn’t turn his head so much as he looked at Ashley out of the corner of his eyes, still catching the way she had started to gently brush her thumb across Joshlynn’s rosy cheek even as her voice came out in a choked whisper. “Her cheeks had been so red and warm the last couple of days, I was terrified that she was getting sick.”

Chris furrowed his forehead as some of the pieces he didn’t know had been missing in the first place clicked together. “Wait, is that why you haven’t been sleeping very well the past few nights?” He didn’t wait for her to answer, the moment her teeth had pulled her lower lip into her mouth was all the answer he needed. “Ash! Why didn’t you say anything?”

She shrugged, but no matter how blasé she tried to make it, Chris could easily tell how concerned and embarrassed she really was. “I don’t know. I was so scared that she was getting sick, but I was even more scared that I was going to bother everyone with nothing. That they were going to tell me that I’m just overreacting and a terrible mother. And they would have been right: I _was_ overreacting. She’s fine. There was nothing to worry about.”

Chris just tightened his hold around her waist to hold her closer to him, turning his head so he could tuck it even further into the space between her neck and shoulder. “You still should have told me,” he murmured tiredly and urgently against her skin, “I should have been freaking out with you.”

“I was just overreacting—”

“Of course you were overreacting,” he interrupted. “We’re first time parents Ash! We’re _supposed_ to be terrified about everything, it’s to be expected. Just watch, she’s going to trip and fall and skin her knee one day, but we’re totally going to be driving her to the ER to make sure that she didn’t break anything. And then we’re never going to let her run anywhere ever again or let her anywhere near sharp objects until she’s _at least_ thirty-five. Just you wait and see.” 

He could feel rather than hear the small little laugh she gave at that, even as she relaxed further into his arms. “We’re not going to be _that_ bad.”

“Says you. _I’m_ going to be absolutely awful and embarrass all of you with my bubble-wrap parenting ways.”

There was something about the way that Ash moved her shoulder that let Chris know exactly what she was looking for. Not that it was hard, they had been pretty attuned to what the other wanted for years now. Still, he had no ideas of refusing her request, lifting his head to catch her lips with his own, the two of them melting into a kiss that carried no heat or passion with it, just trust and heartfelt appreciation that they were both here to experience this. If there had been any heat in the kiss, it was less a bonfire and more akin to a low burning flame in a fireplace; leaving you to feel content and tired, and not wanting to move an inch from the utmost safety and warmth it was offering you. It was a kiss shared by two parents who knew that the day’s scares and excitement had finally ended, and now the exhaustion had set in.

“I love you.”

Chris wasn’t sure which of them had actually said it, still so close that they could likely _feel_ the words forming before it ever passed the other's lips. It didn’t matter, the tired hum of confirmation that they both gave was all that was needed as an answer.

The two of them stayed like that for he had no idea how long, but eventually Joshlynn’s suckling slowed before stopping entirely, and the once tight grip of her hand against his pinky had loosened enough that Chris was able to remove it with little effort and wrap his arm back around Ashley’s waist. Gently and slowly, Ash readjusted her hold so Joshlynn wasn’t latched onto her breast anymore, but never got up to put her into her crib. And Chris didn’t think it was possible, but he somehow managed to tighten his hold and bring them further into the cocoon of warmth and safety that had become his arms. All while he and Ash just continued to watch their daughter sleep peacefully in her arms.

“We really should put her to bed.” Ashley murmured.

“Probably. Lots to do.”

“Mhm. Never did clean up from lunch.”

“I should really go clean up the mess in the living room too.”

“It would be a good idea…”

Once it was clear that neither was willing to move, Chris spoke up.

“Or, you know, we could sit here for just a little longer.”

“Yeah, or we could do that. I think that’s the best idea you’ve had all day.”

“You know what? I think you’re right.”


End file.
